Abstract: A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for accessing data in a computer system. One or more user-defined functions (UDFs) implementing a desired compression or decompression algorithm are created, wherein the UDFs are associated with one or more columns of a table when the table is created or altered, in order to perform compression or decompression of data stored in the associated columns, such that the data is compressed by the UDF implementing the desired compression algorithm when the data is inserted or updated in the table, and the data is decompressed by the UDF implementing the desired decompression algorithm when the data is retrieved from the table.

Abstract: A method for processing a trigger are described. The trigger is associated with a subject table in a relational database and defines a triggering statement and one or more triggered actions. The method includes determining that a triggering statement of a trigger will execute on a subject table row of a subject table and requesting a transition table in response to determining that the triggering statement will execute. The transition table includes a transition table row. The transition table row includes a first value associated with the subject table row and a second value associated with the subject table row. The method further includes reading the transition table row from the transition table and identifying a processing unit to receive the transition table row and a triggered action of the trigger. The method also includes transmitting the transition table row and the triggered action to the identified processing unit to be processed.